Leon Trotsky: Letter to Lenin

[Copy. Secret. By direct line. True Copy. (File of outgoing papers for 1919 No. I, part 2, from No. 1 to No. 500, of the Field Chancery of the train of the Chairman of the RVSR) The Trotsky Papers 1917-1922, edited and annotated by Jan M. Meijer, The Hague. 1964, Vol. 2., p. 249, 251]

January 11, 1919 (Balashov)

To: Comrade Lenin.

A compromise, of course, is necessary, but not a rotten one. The fact of the matter is that all the Tsaritsyn-men have gathered together in Kharkov. As to what the Tsaritsyn-men are, read Okulov’s report, which consists entirely of factual data and of Commissars’ reports. I consider the protection given by Stalin to the Tsaritsyn trend the most dangerous sort of ulcer, worse than any act of perfidy or treachery on the part of the military specialists. If there were no prospect of the opening of an Anglo-French Front in the Ukraine, the question of the command might be treated as a matter of indifference, but we shall have to carry out major operations there. Rukhimovich is a pen-name for Voroshilov. In a month’s time we shall have to bear the consequences of the Tsaritsyn muddle, this time opposed not by the Cossacks but by the Anglo-French. Rukhimovich is not all on his own; they cling tightly to one another and make a fetish of ignorance. Voroshilov plus the Ukrainian partisan movement, plus the backwardness of the population, plus demagogy - this in any event we cannot consent to. Let Artem² be appointed, but not Voroshilov and not Rukhimovich.

I am shortly leaving for Balashov in view of certain alarming developments. If you do not reach agreement with the Ukrainians by means of correspondence, I will summon them to Voronezh. Greetings.

I ask you once again to read carefully Okulov’s report on the Tsaritsyn Army and on how Voroshilov demoralised it with Stalin’s assistance.

Trotsky

Message passed to Kremlin, Moscow,

11/1 at 2.10 hrs., over line 128:

Artemov. Received in Moscow: Voronov.